Game apparatus with rotatable marble transporting discs



17;"1958 QS-B'AKER 2,839,303 AME APPARATUS WITH ROTATABLE MARBLETRANSPORTING DISCS Fii'd Nov.' 4, 1955 a" I l. '0 I I j ygyi gya 6 J6m/Jw /7 lZa 2s 24 3/ 32- MENTOR ATTORNEYSI United States atent GAMEAPPARATUS WITH ROTATABLE MARBLE TRANSPORTING DISCS David S. Baker, NewYork, N. Y.

Application November 4, 1955, Serial No. 544,990

2 Claims. (Cl. 273-134) This invention relates to parlor games and moreparticularly to a game device wherein the combination of skill andchance determines the extent of advance of the players markers by virtueof movement thereof by rotatable discs.

I have observed that most if not all commercially successful gamedevices, particularly those including one or more moving parts, arecharacterized by structural simplicity and readily understandableplaying procedure. I have further observed that in most if not all ofsuch games the players success or lack of it is directly attributable tochance, i. e. the throw of dice or the spinning of a wheel, for example,with little or no reliance on the players skill or strategy. Such gamesaccordingly lack educational characteristics (they are not mentallystimulating) and to a certain extent the element of suspense as wouldotherwise be present were skill or strategy required in addition to goodluck.

Furthermore many of such games have a limited market because of theirlack of appeal to any but the immature mind; thus the adult or maturejuvenile is, in effect, excluded from the market as he or she is notmentally stimuated and hence not amused in the playing of such games.

It is, accordingly, among the objects of my invention to provide a gamedevice the successful playing of which depends on a combination ofchance and skill. A further object is to provide a game characterized bystructural simplicity and readily understandable procedural rules. Astill further object is to provide a game of the above nature that maybe inexpensively manufactured and at the same time be durable over anextended period of use. Other objects will in part be pointed out and inpart apparent hereinafter.

In the drawing wherein I have shown one form of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of my game;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken along the line 2-2 ofFig. 1; and

Figs. 3 and 4 are details illustrating the manner in which the rotatableand stationary discs of my game are mounted on a central supportingpost.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout theseveral views of the drawing.

Referring now to the drawing, the game structurally comprises in generala base, generally indicated at 10, having centrally secured thereto anupstanding square or non-circular post 11 on which are rotatably mounteddiscs 12 and 13, respectively, a stationary disc 14 and a spinner 15,the spinner being held in proper operating position by a thumb screw 16threaded into the upper end of post 11.

Base is preferably square and may be fabricated from heavy cardboard,plastic or any other suitable material. If cardboard is used, the basemay include a bottom plate 17, to which is secured in any suitablemanner an upper plate 18 which, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, includespreferably four recesses, 18, 19, 20 and 21.

Patented June 17, 1958 This upper plate 18 is circularly hollowed out soas to provide a large diameter hole 22 in base 10, discs 12, 13 and 14being concentrically disposed in relation to such hole.

Fitted about post 11 and resting on bottom plate 17 is a frictionreducing washer 23 which may or may not be fastened to the plate, asdesired. Bottom disc 12 rests on washer 23 and is accordingly spaced aslight distance above the top of plate 17 so as to be easily rotatablerelative thereto. Another antifriction washer 24 is disposed on top ofdisc 12 and is preferably fastened thereto, this washer having acircular hole (see Fig. 3) so as to permit is rotation and accordinglyrotation of the disc relative to the squared post 11.

Disposed on top of rotatable disc 12 is a stationary disc 25 on the topof which is secured a washer 26 having a square hole (see Fig. 4)through which post 11 extends, thus to preclude rotation of disc 25relative to the post and to disc 12. This last-mentioned disc 25 spacesrotatable discs 12 and 13, which latter disc comprises upper and lowerplates 13a and 13b secured to the opposite sides of and accordinglyspaced by an intervening plate 27, these three plates havinga circularhole through which post 11 extends so as to permit rotation of theplates and accordingly the composite disc 13 relative not only to thepost but also to the lower disc 12 and base 10. Furthermore immovabledisc 25, by virtue of its relationship to rotatable discs 12 and 13precludes rotation of one of discs 12 or 13 when the other is rotated.On the top of disc 13 is preferably disposed an antifriction washer 28on which rests another anti-friction washer 29 secured to the undersideof top disc 14, washer 29 and disc 14 being provided with a square holethrough which post 11 extends so as to preclude relative rotationbetween this disc and the post.

It may now be seen that disc 12 is spaced from base plate 17 and isrotatable relative thereto, that disc 13 is spaced from disc 12 and isrotatable relative thereto and relative to base 10, and that top disc 14is spaced from rotatable disc 13, but is held stationary.

As best shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, base 10 is provided with a ring30 of indicia which illustratively is segmented into quadrants by virtueof the provision of recesses 18-21. Each of these segments is in turnsubdivided into a number of lesser, or rather shorter sections,illustratively seven in number, and so numbered. As may be seen inFigure 2, lower rotatable disc 12 may be formed by upper and lowerplates 31 and 32 which are secured together in any suitable manner, andin turn secured to the top of a spacer disc 12a which rides on washer23. The plates are peripherally punched or cut out so as to providegenerally U-shaped grooves or slots 33 in the upper plate andregistering downwardly inclined tongues or ramps 34 in the lower plate,each registering slot and ramp accordingly forming with the edge of thehole a pocket 35 for the reception of a playing marble 36 or the like.As pointed out above, upper rotatable disc 13 includes lower and upperplates 13a and 13b, the latter plate being peripherally punched as shownin Figure 1 to provide a circular row of marble-receiving holes 37 (seealso Figure 2). It will now appear that when my game is played, as willbe described hereinafter, a marble deposited in one of pockets 35 willbe transported upon rotation of lower disc 12 unitl the pocket in whichthe marble reposes passes one of recesses 1S21, e. g. recess 20. If themarble is in the pocket at the time such pocket passes the recess, itwill roll by gravity out of its pocket down ramp 34 into recess 2%), forexample. It will also appear that if a marble is deposited in one ofholes 37 in upper rotatable disc 13, it will merely be transported upondisc 12 or hole 37 of slow disc '2 I.) rotation of the disc, withoutbeing released, other than manually, therefrom.

. which may be identified by the letters A-H. The four segments orquadrants of upper rotatable disc 13 are defined by differently coloredstarting stations 38, 39, 40 and 41, printedon stationary disc 14, whichare inregistry with the correspondingly colored recesses 18, 19, 20 and21. These recesses, as will more clearly appear hereinafter, arerespectively home stations for the several players and also are penaltyboxes for penalizing the unfortunate player during thecourse of thegame.

The periphery of stationary discf14 is provided with a ring 42 ofindicia segmentedintoquadrants by stations 3841, these indicia beingillustratively seven in number and'numbered accordingly The centerportion of stationary disc 14 which underlies spinner 15 is providedwith concentric rings 43 and 44 of indicia, the outer ring 43illustratively being provided with indicia ranging from 1-8, the innerring being provided with indicia illustratively 0, 2, and 3 with a bonusindicia, illustratively 8, optionally provided. These two indicia rings43 and 44 are preferably differently colored as arediscs 12 and 13, thecolor of ring 43 and disc 12 being the same, and the color of inner ring44 and upper disc 13 being the same. Thus during the play of the gamewhen the pointer is spun the proper disc for angular movement may easilybe identified.

My game might be characterized as a bare and tortoise racing game withmarbles, in the embodiment disclosed, for two, three or four players.The lower rotatable disc 12 may be identified as the fast or hare ring,while the upper disc 13 may be considered the slow or tortoise ring. a

While my game may be' played in various ways, I have found the followingto be enjoyable: Each player may be provided with three marbles 36, eachset of marbles being colored to correspond with the players home recess,such as recess .21; Each player then spins spinner 15 to determine (onthe outer ring 43) his starting number. or

position. He then places one marble at the thusly determined station ineither the corresponding pocket 35 or hole 37; for example, ifthe'player whose home station is 21 spins the spinner so that it stopsat station #2, he has the option of placing his marble either in pocketN of fast 13 counterclockwise of his home station 21. 1 i 'After all theplayers have located their starting number or position, the player whospun the highest number may become the operator for that particulargame, he alone spinning the spinner and moving the discs accordingly. Of

course, in case of a tie for operator. the players spin again. Aftereachplayers marbleis in starting position,

the spinner is spun with reference to inner or slow ring 44 and the slowdisc 13 is moved angularly counterclockwise in accordance with thenumber indicated by the spinner'on ring 44. The operator again spins thespinner with relation to the outer or fast ring 43 to determine theextent of angular counterclockwise movement of fast disc '12. Thus, forexample, if on the first spin the spinner stops at 3 on inner ring 44,disc 13 is moved counterclockwise 3 spaces, as determined by the numberson ring 42 of disc 14. If on the second spin the spinner should stop at6 on outer ring 43, then the fast disc 12 would be moved 6 spacesorstations, as determined by the ring 30 of numbers onbase 10. V

Before the operator spins the disc again the several players study thepositions of their marbles so as to decide whichtrack they want theirmarbles to travel on. Thus, ifa-player has a marble in a hole37 in slowdisc 13, he

- scale for determining the rotativeadvance of said second may shift itto a registering pocket 35 in the fast disc 12. The players preferablymake their plays one at a time starting with the player at the right ofthe operator who is the last one to make his play. Each players secondand third marble may enter the race on successive plays at any timeafter the first play, starting at station #1 counterclockwise of hisstarting location in either of discs 12 or 13.

It may occur that during the rotation of disc 12 one of its pockets 35holding a players marble may register with or pass one of penaltypockets1821, in which event the marble would roll down a ramp 34 out of thepocket into one of the penalty boxes; When this occurs the marble canget out of the penalty'boxes only on the following conditions:

(1) Marbles entering the penalty box on each turn free a correspondingnumber of marbles that may be in the box; F or example, if there are twomarbles in the penalty box and oneenters, only one (the first to enter)is freed.

(2) Two or more marbles of the same color in a penalty box areautomatically freed (3) Any marble in a penalty box can be freed only bythe entrance of another marble, regardless of its color.

After a marble has been freed from a penalty box it is placed in thenext station #1 on either of the discs 12 or 13 counterclockwise of thepenalty box from which the marble was freed. If two or more marbles arefreed at one time, the'last one to enter takes station #1, the nextstation #2, etc..

As I have stated hereinabove, the game may be played in various ways,but when played as. described, Ihave found it to be quite enjoyablethrough the judicious use of strategy in transferring marbles from theslow to the fast track and vice versa, depending on the relationship ofany given marble to the penalty box which it is appreaching. The winnerof the game, of course, is he who first moves all his marbles 360 fromthe starting position into his home box.

Accordingly it may be seen that I have provided a game. that attains theseveral objects set forth hereinabove ina thoroughly practical andefficient manner.

I claim:

1. Ina game apparatus, in combination, a base, ,a post secured to saidbase and extending upwardly thereof from its center, a lower discrotatably mounted on said post and manually rotatable relative to saidbase, said disc having formed therein regularly annularly spaced holesadapted to receive and transport a playing piece, such as a marble, uponmanipuiationby a player of the game,

said second disc having marble receptacles therein from which themarbles can be removed by manual effort only, and a counter having slowand fast scales, the arrangement of the receptacles in the second discand the holes in the first disc being such that advance of a marblewhilercposing in the second disc is determined by saidslow disc, while, ifthe player chooses to expedite the advance of his marble, he maymanually remove it from the sec- 0nd or slowdisc and place it in a holein the first or fast disc whose rotativc advance is determined by saidfast scale whereby the player moving his marble from the slow disc tothe fast disc takes the chance of his "so-moved marble being carried toa penalty pocket automatically should the counter so dictate, saidcounter including .a manually operable spinner registrable with saidscales to determine the rotative advance of said discs.

2. In a game apparatus, in combination, a base, a support fastened tosaid base and extending upwardly therefrom, a fast disc rotatablymounted on said support, a slow disc rotatably mounted on said supportabove said fast disc, said fast disc having a plurality of playing piecereceptacles formed around the periphery thereof and opening to aregistering plurality of hazard or penalty pockets angularly formed insaid base but with lesser frequency than the receptacles in said "fastdisc, each of said pockets being of such depth that when a playing pieceis transported into registry therewith, it will fall from said fast discautomatically into the registering pocket, and a slow disc rotatablymounted on said support above said fast disc and being of lesserdiameter than said fast disc and having angularly spaced playing piecereceiving holes adjacent its periphery adapted to manually receive andretain playing pieces deposited therein, whereby any playing pieceplaced in said slow disc can only be manually retrieved therefrom, and acounter having slow and fast scales, said slow scale having low valuedigits and said fast scale having high value digits, the arrangement ofthe holes in said slow disc and the receptacles in said fast disc beingsuch that advance of a playing piece reposing in said slow disc isdetermined by said slow scale for determining the rotative advance ofsaid slow disc, While, if the player chooses to expedite the advance ofthe playing piece, he may manually remove it from said slow disc andplace it in a receptacle in said fast disc whose rotative advance isdetermined by said fast scale digits whereby the player moving hisplaying piece from said slow disc to said fast disc, takes the chance ofhis so-moved playing piece being carried to a penalty pocketautomatically should the fast scale on the counter so dictate, saidcounter including a manually operable spinner registrable with saidscales to determine the rotative advance of said disc.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,215,696 Graves Sept. 24, 1940 2,682,408 Warns et al June 29, 1954FOREIGN PATENTS 403,761 Great Britain Jan. 4, 1934 569,835 Great BritainJune 11, 1945

